History Book: Stolen into immortality

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next … a museum heist.

115 years ago, a former employee slipped inside the Louvre and stole the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s then-400 year old masterpiece.

The painting was lost for two years as police searched for the man responsible.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has this week’s history book:

The painting was lost for two years as police searched for the man responsible.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has this week’s history book:

EMMA EICHER: On August 21st, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia pulled off the perfect crime.

GARY GIROD: He was able to essentially abscond with this priceless artifact.

Gary Girod is a history professor at Florida Southwestern State College. He says Peruggia was an Italian-born man working at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.

He had worked as a glazier, helping install protective glass around paintings. In fact, Peruggia’s work had involved the Mona Lisa … the same painting he had come to steal.

GIROD: He goes up, literally just walks up to it, takes it off of the wall, covers it up with this type of sheet …

Some accounts say that two Italian brothers assisted Peruggia in lifting the painting off the wall and removing its glass case.

And to add insult to injury, the story goes that an unwitting plumber helped Peruggia leave the museum with the covered painting tucked under his arm:

GIROD: He comes upon a locked door. He actually runs into a plumber who says, ‘Oh, let me get that for you.’ Unlocks it, literally walks out, goes right back to his apartment, and stores it there.

The theft wasn’t discovered until the following day, when an artist wanting to make a copy of the Mona Lisa asked where it was.

The museum guard assumed the painting was taken down for photographing or maintenance. After confirming it wasn’t in the building, authorities finally realized the Mona Lisa had been stolen.

GIROD: The art director said that he didn't believe it, because who would do such a thing?

The heist set off a media frenzy.

GIROD: Clearly, this was a national embarrassment. You have politicians saying that this is a disgrace …

A swarm of policemen searched the Louvre for clues. The leading officer said it was only a matter of time before they found the painting. He even predicted the investigation would be over in two or three days.

But the truth was, police had very little physical evidence to pin the crime on anyone.

GIROD: For the most part, they were just going off of hunches. First, they would interview all of the staff …

Among the people questioned were other artists, including poet Guillaume Apollinaire and Cubist painter Pablo Picasso:

GIROD: This was because, among other things, Apollinaire had written a poem in which he said to burn down the Louvre. And there had been a Belgian man who stole some antique statuettes, and he ended up selling those to Pablo Picasso to use as his inspiration for some of the paintings he would paint.

But they were cleared, leaving everyone still guessing the mastermind behind the whodunit. Wild theories ranged from foreign governments, to wealthy art collectors, to avant-garde extremists.

GIROD: The accusations are going to run pretty wild. In fact, J.P. Morgan, the famous American businessman, there's going to be conspiracies that he had organized this high-profile, sort of Ocean's 11-style heist so that he could steal the Mona Lisa.

Almost overnight, her face and the story behind it became known around the world.

European newspapers displayed photos of the painting and promised a hefty reward for the thief’s capture. Police distributed Wanted posters, and the painting even appeared on chocolate boxes and postcards.

The Mona Lisa had become a global icon.

And the whole time, she was tucked away at Peruggia’s apartment, only two miles from the Louvre.

GIROD: There's actually a story that police went to his apartment. They interviewed him, and at one point the police leaned up against the table where the Mona Lisa was right under it.

Whether that story is true or not, Peruggia didn’t become a formal suspect for two years. In late 1913, he wrote to an art dealer, offering to bring the Mona Lisa to Italy in exchange for money. He apparently was convinced that the painting belonged to Italy, even though Leonardo da Vinci himself had taken it to France.

The art dealer arranged the meeting and then turned Peruggia in. Police arrested him at his hotel in Florence.

Newspapers speculated Peruggia was a genius who had cleverly evaded capture. But at his trial, a court-appointed psychiatrist found Peruggia to be partially mentally impaired:

GIROD: Peruggia very much disappoints people because he wasn't this grand thief. He was just some guy.

The Mona Lisa fever returned as the world celebrated. The painting was displayed in Florence and Rome until returning to the Louvre in early 1914:

GIROD: The theft was probably the best thing that ever happened to the Mona Lisa, to be honest.

The crime exposed serious weaknesses in museum security. At the Louvre today, the Mona Lisa hangs behind a specially designed bulletproof glass case.

And every year, millions of visitors try to catch a glimpse of it. That’s mostly thanks to the heist that helped the Mona Lisa become the most famous painting in the world.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Eicher.

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